What percentage of money from the United States total budget goes to foreign assistance? Think about that question for a minute. Truly, what percent of the budget do you think goes outside the United States to help people around the world? Most people believe it is somewhere between 20-30% of the total budget....

Tens of thousands of people in the United States are living with strains of HIV that have become resistant to some, or all, of the available HIV antiretrovirals. HIV drug-resistance can occur by taking ARV’s improperly or by the natural evolution of resistance mutations. Resistant strains of HIV can be transmitted. Consequently, one can be resistant to drugs they have never taken, simply because they were taken by the person from whom they were infected by. This phenomenon is called “transmitted HIV drug resistance.”...

In 2007, a German doctor named Gero Hutter performed a risky surgical procedure on a man with both HIV and leukemia that would result in the first person being at least “functionally cured” of HIV. In the years since, the details of the procedure have been well-documented, publicized and scrutinized, leaving little doubt that Timothy Ray Brown - formally known as “the Berlin Patient” - has indeed been cured of HIV. Now, six years later, doctors at the University of Minnesota will attempt a similar procedure in a child with leukemia who was born HIV positive....

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare, often fatal illness that affects approximately 1 million people in the U.S. It is much more common in people with HIV than in the general population, although the connection as to why has not been established....

If someone you care about has recently tested positive for HIV, you may be at a loss concerning how to help them. There are no how-to books or cookie-cutter approaches, but we’d like to offer some ideas for your consideration as “my brother’s/sister’s keeper.”...

At the 20th Conference on Retrovirology and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which concluded this past week, Dr. Francois Dabis, from ANRS (Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida/National Research Agency on AIDS) in France, gave a presentation, “Is the End of AIDS in Sight?” At this critical symposium on achieving an “AIDS-free generation,” Dr. Dabis defined the end of AIDS as (1) no more AIDS-defining events or deaths, with (2) less than 350,000 new infections per year worldwide, (3) elimination of new HIV infections in children and (4) disease control. While his comments seemed to indicate a turning tide, he also asserted that there is not enough data to speculate about the end of AIDS....

On March 7, 2013, I had the opportunity to be on a panel entitled, “US Policy Priorities for Women’s Global Health in the Second Obama Term,” at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington, DC. The event was to highlight International Women’s Day (March 8), by focusing attention on issues that directly affect women’s health and well-being....

Today, a new Pope is elected. It is not a “royal position,” but many – including himself – seem to believe that Francis comes to a position of leadership for a little more than one-half of the world’s Christians, “…for such a time as this.”...